Sid Turner Plays 'Chansonade'

[Shawn McSweeny]

'Chansonade?'  Well, not really. That's the title his old friend Tarant Bailey Sr. used a few decades ago, when he introduced this piece on the home reel tapes he made for friends.

It is correctly titled "Marche Negre". Written by Turner, it is one of several numbers he recorded for Pathe in London, April, 1908. It bears the earliest catalogue number of the group, likely making it his first released recording. Turner was 26 at the time.

In the CE notation I have edited some note choices that departed noticeably from the recording. The banjo 1st, second, piano notation and banjo TAB are provided.

The recording is at, or near, score pitch and performance tempo.

[Richard William Ineson]

Nothing to do with the music, but Sid Turner was a hairdresser/barber in real life, his shop/salon was in Cheltenham, a very fashionable and 'posh' (upmarket) town in Gloucestershire. The surprising thing to me is that, the last time I looked, about three years ago, Sid's premises were still being used as a hairdressing establishment.